Everett, Wash.
Published: Saturday, December 20, 2008

GUEST COMMENTARY

Zoo's elephants need, deserve sanctuary

By Nancy Farnam

 Woodland Park Zoo has truly been a regional zoo. People in Snohomish County as well as King County have been loyal visitors there for years. So when a 6-year old Asian elephant, Hansa, died at the zoo last year from a dreaded elephant virus, we were all shocked and saddened.

Remembering Hansa's innocent playfulness, we wondered how she could have been taken so quickly. Her loss was harder to accept when the zoo's records revealed that she was repeatedly exposed to known sources of the virus throughout her life.

Although Hansa had only been dead for six months, the zoo impregnated her mother, Chai, again through artificial insemination last January. This was a dangerous decision. Captive Asian elephants under 8 are the most likely to get sick and die from the virus. Since it was learned that an African elephant, Watoto, is infected with the same virus that killed Hansa, any new calf would be at high risk as well. The last thing Chai needed was to experience another loss and the last thing the public needed was to hear about another innocent baby elephant dying at the Zoo. Chai recently suffered a miscarriage, removing that dreadful possibility.

Chai and the zoo's other surviving elephants need our help. In addition to being forced participants in the zoo's troubled breeding program, Bamboo, Watoto and Chai have been confined for decades in a small yard. Records show that they also suffered beatings, prolonged chaining and isolation in the past.

The zoo elephants' current life is a study in crushing monotony. Frequent observations since last year reveal that they are brought into the barn at about 4 p.m. and locked in small rooms for the next 18-20 hours. Watoto is often locked in either the windowless quarantine or shower room, where she stands on a hard floor with barely enough space to turn around until being let out the next day around 10 or 11 a.m. Watoto suffers from arthritis and chronic colic, both aggravated by this intensive confinement and Seattle's cold, wet weather.

In the morning, the elephants are bathed and provided footcare. Standing on hard surfaces and lack of exercise often leads to recurrent foot abscesses as well as arthritis that, despite preventive measures, are the leading causes of premature death in zoo elephants. Chai suffers from these chronic abscesses.

After their baths, the elephants are let out into portions of their one-acre yard. Bamboo and Watoto have never gotten along so they are kept separated. From about 11 a.m. until being returned to the barn, the elephants stand around and repetitively pace or rock, behavior not seen in wild elephants. Animal experts have compared this coping mechanism to people going "stir crazy" in prison. Watoto and Bamboo have also been documented as being increasingly aggressive, another sign of elephant distress.

Life is very different for the pachyderm residents at The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee (www.elephants.com). No longer held as zoo "specimens" or captive circus performers, they are given the chance to reconnect to the natural world, roaming and exploring more than 2,700 acres of meadows, streams, lakes, ponds, hills and woods. They create their own schedules and determine their own friendships. They choose whether to sleep in their state-of-the-art barn or out under the stars. Neurotic aggression and repetitive behaviors gradually disappear as layers of their captive legacy peel away to reveal what nature intended them to be: elephants, intelligent and wise, the last descendants of the prehistoric world of mammoths and mastodons.

Elephants are the largest land mammal and are migratory by nature. Experts agree they need a lot of space. David Hancocks, former Woodland Park Zoo director, stated that elephants are "… poor candidates for life in captivity … (I doubt) if a dozen elephants worldwide are in truly good psychological, behavioral and social conditions. Their requirements are so substantial it is probably beyond the capabilities of most zoos to even begin to resolve them."

Elephants do not belong in small zoo yards. Although keepers may work hard to care for their trunked charges, they cannot meet their needs. Elephants require and deserve much more. They have little chance of living a normal lifespan if they remain at the zoo. But we can get these survivors to a healthier life at the Elephant Sanctuary by petitioning the Seattle City Council and Woodland Park Zoo.

In keeping with the spirit of this holiday season and in loving memory of dear little Hansa, it is the compassionate and decent thing that we should finally do for them.



Nancy Farnam lives in Edmonds.
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA